Business Pivot Point

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been sworn into office again, following his controversial win in last month’s elections.

President Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Many international leaders stayed away from the inauguration but at least five African presidents attended the event.

The UN said it was sending the heads of the two UN peacekeeping missions in the country to the ceremony.

Taking the oath of office, President Bashir addressed parliament in Khartoum for around 30 minutes.
At the scene
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James Copnall
BBC News, Khartoum

President Omar al-Bashir’s supporters, of whom there are many in parliament, shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) when he got up to swear his oath. He appeared sombre and serious.

Inside he was probably smiling. Seven African heads of state attended the ceremony, largely from the neighbourhood.

It gave a touch of prestige to the proceedings, though Western nations were in general represented by locally based diplomats, and sometimes not even the ambassador. In some circles it is not the done thing to be seen in public with a man wanted for alleged war crimes.

President Bashir’s speech concentrated on development priorities, and reassuring old enemies in the south he would respect their choice in next January’s critical referendum. Southern leaders publicly gave the speech a cautious welcome. But their image of the president - like that of the rest of the world - will not have been changed today.
Dream result for President Bashir Profile: Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir

Presidents from Ethiopia, Chad, Malawi, Mauritania, and Djibouti were in the audience.

The US has evidence the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

Mr Holder said the militants helped to facilitate the plot, and “probably helped finance it”.

US officials had previously rejected claims by the group that it was behind the 1 May plot.

A Pakistani-born US citizen has been charged with the attempted bombing in New York’s tourist quarter a week ago.

Faisal Shazhad, 30, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, has co-operated with investigators, and admits receiving bomb-making training in the Pakistani region of Waziristan, prosecutors have said.

The memoir of former US President George W Bush will be a candid account of his “flaws and mistakes” as well as his achievements, his publishers said.

The book, Decision Points, will offer “never-before-heard detail” on some of the key events of Mr Bush’s presidency, Crown Publishers announced.

Due for release in November, the book also covers Mr Bush’s family life.

The former Texas governor left office in 2009 with one of the lowest presidential approval ratings ever.

Correspondents say his legacy has been damaged by unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global financial crisis.

The twin brother of Poland’s former president, who was killed in a plane crash in Russia this month, says he will run to be elected in his place.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he would stand in the 20 June presidential election despite his “personal pain”, in order to continue his brother’s mission.

Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in western Russia on 10 April, along with many Polish dignitaries.

The two brothers founded the Law and Justice party in 2001.

China has replaced the most powerful official in its western region of Xinjiang, where ethnic violence left nearly 200 people dead last July.

Wang Lequan, who had served as secretary of the Communist Party in Xinjiang since 1994, was replaced by Zhang Chunxian, state media say.

Mr Wang was appointed to a new post in the Chinese Communist Party.

No reason was given for the move but analysts note there was much public anger over his handling of the riots.

China reported that most of the those killed in the riots were from the Han Chinese community. Order was only restored after soldiers were deployed to the region’s main city, Urumqi.

The leading party of today’s ruling party of Sri Lanka is lead by president Mahinda rajapaksha. The general elections which were held on Thursday had the record of lowest turnout. The record of lowest turnout is found to be a history of parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. The United People’s freedom (UPFA) till Friday had won about 117 seats in Sri Lanka. UPFA had crossed 113 marks and simple majority of 225 members was given to them.

Principle opposition, nearest competition United National Party reached 47 seats. Democratic National alliance was led by former army chief Foneseka was left with just with five seats. The southern strongholds wiped the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Perumana .Some 12 seats was bagged by Tamil National alliance and won the district of Jaffna. The delay will be made during the final result announced the election department.

The delay was mainly due to the results of districts Kandy and Trincomalee which had some malpractices. The two districts have ordered fresh polls which were announced by election commissioner Dayananda Dissanayaka. UPFA even didn’t have good results in these two districts and had a fall short of 2/3 rd majority. The latest poll verdict would give the new government lot of energy to go ahead and work on full scale rebuilding of the trouble torn nation.

Serbia’s parliament has passed a landmark resolution offering an apology for the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 - the worst incident of the Bosnian War.

The resolution says Serbia should have done more to prevent the tragedy. It was approved by a narrow majority.

However it stopped short of calling the killings a genocide.

The killing of nearly 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) was carried out by Bosnian Serb forces - allies of then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Meanwhile, a Dutch court has rejected an attempt to hold the United Nations responsible for the massacre.

Heavy rain in southern Colombia has delayed an operation to collect a soldier who left-wing rebels have promised to release after 12 years.

Sgt Pablo Emilio Moncayo was just 19 when he was seized by Farc guerrillas.

The rebels unilaterally freed another soldier on Sunday but are still holding some 20 members of the security forces.

It is not clear how long the mission will be delayed but two helicopters are set to fly from the city of Florencia to the agreed handover location.

Colombia’s peace commissioner, Frank Pearl, said the decision to take off would be down to the crew of the two helicopters loaned by Brazil.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has vowed to contest the results of parliamentary elections that saw former PM Iyad Allawi win a narrow victory.

Speaking angrily on national television, he said he would challenge the count through what he described as a legal process.

Mr Allawi won by only two seats, paving the way for weeks of political wrangling to form a new government.

Earlier, UN envoy to Iraq Ad Melkert said the election had been credible.

He called on all parties to accept the outcome.

The landmark US healthcare reform bill must be sent back to the House of Representatives for approval after two issues were raised by Republicans.

During an all-night voting session, two points relating to student loans were found to violate Senate procedure, said an aide to the Senate majority leader.

They were described as “relatively minor provisions”.

They will have to be deleted, approved by the Senate and then sent back to the House for approval.

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives by 219 votes to 212 on Sunday, with no Republican backing.